SUTTON 
If you travel Route 146, tensions between state troopers and local police over turf are now in your face. A billboard appeared two weeks ago in the northbound lanes in Sutton cryptically proclaiming: 'Attention Sutton Residents. Troopers are your best protection.' The billboard, paid for by the State Police Association of Massachusetts union and taken by local police as an insult directed at them, is the latest salvo in a long-running jurisdictional dispute about who handles traffic enforcement, accidents and lucrative construction details on state roads that run through the heart of many towns.

The now highly visible Sutton controversy comes as $6 million in roadway improvements on Route 146 and Boston Road are set to begin this fall, a project that brings with it a major new source of extra money for officers through paid police details on their off time.

Local police are quick to say that they have historically worked well with state troopers and they see the billboard and other territorial activity being driven by a few particularly the SPAM union leadership. But the sign, seen by many as an affront to all local law enforcement, has drawn heated reaction beyond the county.

'We have never, in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, seen such a vicious attack on a local community by SPAM as that billboard there,' said A. Wayne Sampson, executive director of Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association and a retired Shrewsbury police chief.

SPAM President Dana Pullman emailed a statement to the Telegram & Gazette when asked why the billboard was erected: 'The State Police Association of Massachusetts put up the billboard in response to correspondence sent between the Sutton Police Department and MassDOT. We greatly respect the hard work of the rank and file officers in Sutton, and simply want to reassure the citizens of Sutton that the State Police stand by ready to assist in any way we can.'

Sutton Police Chief Dennis J. Towle said SPAM's dispute was with his actions and the rest of the department shouldn't be implicitly disparaged.

'The men and women of the Sutton Police Department are extraordinary police officers. This billboard does a disservice to them all, as well as every local officer in the Commonwealth of Mass.,' he said.

Chief Towle called the billboard and comments made in support of it on the SPAM Facebook page examples of the union's 'bullying.'

For instance, one person posted a comment under SPAM'sFacebook photo of the billboard: 'Pretty sad that the job doesn't step in and crack them over the head.... Instead we have to resort to this. I love it!'

Last week, in a dramatic show of support, police chiefs and officers from 25 communities showed up at Sutton Town Hall Thursday to stand by the Sutton police.

Saying the billboard was 'insulting' to local police, Millville Police Chief Ron Landry said, 'It's very disappointing that the state police would advocate that they provide a better service than other law enforcement in the state.'

Retired Leominster Police Chief Peter Roddy said: 'We're supposed to be working together. For them to create a silo, it's detrimental to law enforcement. It's very divisive.'

Meanwhile, the man in charge of the state police, Col. Timothy P. Alben, said in an interview with the Telegram & Gazettethat the billboard, which was placed by the union and not the state police, didn't serve well relationships across law enforcement departments.

'I would say it's unfortunate,' he said. 'The State Police Association of Massachusetts doesn't come in and consult with me' about its activities.

Col. Alben said that disputes over jurisdiction have come up over the years in towns including Foxboro, Savoy and Erving.

He said he's been in two statewide meetings with police chiefs about such concerns involving Sutton, and on both occasions he had hoped the problems were amicably resolved.

A meeting last September between Sutton police and state police resulted in mutual agreement that Sutton police have jurisdiction on Route 146 and Purgatory Chasm State Reservation.

Both agencies may patrol, enforce traffic laws, work details and file accident reports on the roads, although state police say they're responsible for booking accidents with fatalities or serious injuries, according to Lt. Col. Edward Amodeo, who was at the September meeting.

Nothing in state law gives state police primary or exclusive responsibility for state roads.

In Col. Alben's view, the billboard and other recent turf confrontations have been driven by the Route 146 construction project and opportunities for paid details, a lucrative source of income for local and state police around the state.

SUTTON CONTROVERSY

The correspondence Mr. Pullman referred to as rationale for the billboard includes a series of emails starting in late May between Chief Towle and state Department of Transportation District 3 Highway Director Jonathan L. Gulliver. The emails discussed plans for filling traffic details at the construction zone.

Chief Towle said he had been initially told by highway officials that traffic details were assigned to the agency that 'books the crashes.'

But Mr. Gulliver wrote that traffic details would be ordered according to 'primary jurisdictional boundaries.' He said as a state highway, Route 146 is under the primary jurisdiction of the state police.

Chief Towle replied that state law said local police have jurisdiction over state highways and the decision to not equitably split details would not be ig­nored, asking to contact the agency head.

The emails apparently raised the ire of SPAM, too.

In mid-July, a week before the billboard went up, Chief Towle received a call from Town Administrator James A. Smith, who said a selectman had been contacted by Richard Rafferty, a Worcester lawyer who represents SPAM.

Mr. Rafferty had wanted to meet with town officials and Mr. Pullman to discuss concerns about alleged Sutton police 'indiscretions' and a recent housebreak which the Sutton department had recently solved.

After first agreeing to meet, Mr. Smith called Mr. Pullman the following day to cancel.

'I called him and said I didn't think it wise for the meeting,' Mr. Smith said. 'The billboard went up Tuesday (the next day).'

Through a member of his law office, Mr. Rafferty released a statement Friday confirming that he did try to arrange a meeting with a Sutton official 'to understand why the chief had taken such a hostile position with the state police patrolling and responding to calls on Route 146 in Sutton and why he was making disparaging remarks about the state police.'

Mr. Rafferty's statement continued, 'I thought it would be advisable to have a face to face meeting with all parties involved. I did express concern to the Sutton officials inquiring why the chief was so interested about patrols on Route 146, which is the primary jurisdiction for the state police, when he was having significant issues in the town with housebreaks and other criminal matters unrelated to Route 146 and the state police.'

The recent tactics by SPAM perplexed local police.

Despite longstanding cooperative relationships between state and local police, about three years ago state troopers started to aggressively mark Route 146 in Sutton as their responsibility, according to Chief Towle.

Route 146, which runs from Worcester to Providence, includes sections of limited and unlimited access and has a stoplight at Boston Road. The townconsiders the road its business district. Along a 2.2-mile stretch on the roughly seven miles that run through Sutton, the town counts 10 residences and 79 businesses, including banks, convenience stores, a gas station, restaurants, automotive shops, landscapers and a day care center.

'We can't not be on 146,' Chief Towle said.

He pointed to a two-car crash on Route 146 on May 10, 2O1O, as the turning point when a previously friendly relationship with state police - turned ugly.

Sutton Police responded to a 911 call that a young driver had rear-ended another car near Central Turnpike. There were no serious injuries and a local tow truck was called by Sutton Police for the damaged vehicle.

After the Sutton officer investigated the scene and was in his cruiser writing the report, three state police troopers arrived and argued that they were going to book the accident, claiming it was 'their road,' according to memos filed with the police accident report.

The state troopers sent away the local tow truck and called for one of their own.

One of the state troopers 'banged' into Sutton Lieutenant David J. Perry's arm as he walked by, which Lt. Perry, who had been called in for assistance, wrote in his report was 'intentional and purposeful.'

Retired Sutton Fire Chief Paul Maynard, who was working at the scene, said in an interview, 'I have never seen anything like that in my life.'

Several other incidents involved state police 'double booking' minor accidents after Sutton Police had been on the scene, in one case blocking an ambulance with a cruiser so the trooper could get information, which had already been retrieved by local police, from the medic.

'They alleged that they've been told by their rank they must book all accidents on 146,' Chief Towle said.

Chief Towle said that state police also began taking a proprietary interest in responding to 911 calls from Purgatory Chasm State Reservation, despite not having the public-safety access point equipment that would allow them to find a lost hiker based on GPS from the caller's cellphone, which Sutton police can do.

Mr. Sampson said the Chiefs of Police Association filed a complaint with the state 911 Commission after a delayed rescue of lost hikers two years ago, and now individual towns, starting in Boston and rolling out statewide, may opt to directly receive cellphone 911 calls.

This May, half a dozen members of the state police Community Action Team converged on the center of Sutton a bucolic town common bordered by a Congregational church, Town Hall and an antiques store to run radar traffic checks and drive around in a show of force that caused Sutton school officials to call in concern.

Police chiefs from some other communities said they had experienced similar turf battles, but they declined to comment on the record because of potential negative reactions.

POLITICAL DISPUTES

Mr. Sampson, from the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said actions such as those seen in Sutton stem from political clashes with state police going back at least 20 years.

He pointed to 'the LeBlanc legislation,' a bill filed by the chiefs of police annually in the wake of a 1990 state Supreme Judicial Court ruling that a municipal officer cannot cross town lines to arrest a suspect unless the suspect has committed an arrestable offense in the officer's town.

After the LeBlanc ruling, to allow officers to pursue and stop speeding drivers, for example, in a contiguous town, some 200 communities have signed mutual aid agreements giving arrest powers to neighboring on-duty police. However, towns say the agreements pose an administrative burden and are not consistent across the state, and a legis­lative correction is needed.

'SPAM has tried to kill it every year,' Mr. Sampson said. 'They say there's no reason to extend (local) jurisdiction.'

State Sen. Stephen Brewer, D Barre, in 2011 sponsored Senate Bill 662, 'An Act improving apprehension of drunk drivers and other law violators,' which attempted to close the loophole from the LeBlanc case that the pursuing officer had to witness an 'arrestable' offense. The bill would have allowed police who observe a violation, such as reckless or potentially drunken driving, to stop the suspect across town lines.

'It's not an activity that makes local police officers state police officers. Public safety is a shared goal,' Mr. Brewer said. 'It should be all about public safety and not who gets the credit.'

In May, the Supreme Judicial Court, in Commonwealth v. Bartlett, upheld a clause in mutual aid agreements that allowed neighboring police officers to 'self-activate,' and notify the town in which a stop was made after it had taken place.

Formation a decade or two ago of regional law enforcement councils, which often have SWAT teams, accident reconstruction and search and rescue teams, were also a source of friction at times, Mr. Sampson said. State police had sent a letter to towns, when the councils were being established, saying they should save membership dues by calling the state police instead.

Representatives of law enforcement councils serving Central Massachusetts, Northeastern Massachusetts and Southeastern Massachusetts said that now they work well together with the state police.

Webster Police Chief Timothy Bent, president of the Central Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council, said, 'We're all blue. We do our best to work with everyone.' filed with the police accident report.

RESOLUTION?

Police say the friction and disturbing tactics, like the billboard, need to stop. West Brookfield Police Chief Thomas O'Donnell, who serves as president of the Central Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said: 'I'm concerned that what we thought was resolved two years ago or a year ago doesn't seem to be resolved, and you have to ask why that's the case. Honestly, I don't think the way the conversation is going right now is helping anybody... another way has to be found. There's just not enough of us in the state and municipal police that we can afford this kind of thing.'